Covers of the Week -- January 11

Each Monday, staff writers Kevin Melrose and Steve Sunu discuss their five favorite covers from the previous Wednesday, selecting from among them CBR's Cover of the Week. Then at the end of each month, they choose from the weekly winners -- you guessed it! -- a Cover of the Month.

This week's rundown finds Batwoman coming face to face with the Weeping Woman, gold-hoarding Icelandic twins, a long-tongued vampire, a mobster-killing 1930s vigilante and a potentially shocking end for a certain antihero.

Keep reading for Kevin and Steve's favorites from the week of January 11, then discuss your choices in the CBR forums.

"Batwoman" #5, by J.H. Williams III (DC Comics)

J.H. Williams III never ceases to amaze with his dynamic designs for "Batwoman." The delicate intricacies of the multiple layers of the ghost on this cover are surpassed only by the subtle figures in the pool of tears flowing from Batwoman's eyes -- a pool in which she is slowly drowning. This is one of Williams' best "Batwoman" covers yet. -- Steve Sunu

"Northlanders" #47, by Massimo Carnevale (Vertigo)

Massimo Carnevale's layout is fantastic, with one figure staring out a window while the other glances at him, neither looking at the glowing pile of treasure sitting right front of them. Even the coloring, which moves gradually from earthtones to bright blues, reds and yellows, gives the impression that things come to life beyond the treasure, or perhaps even because of it, making this cover a story within itself. -- Steve Sunu

"PunisherMAX" #21, by Dave Johnson (Marvel)

Let's forget for a moment that Frank Castle was a Marine and not a Green Beret and just soak in how effective and, well, alarming this image is. The Castle family portrait, the blood splatters, the hand limply holding the pistol -- all signs point to suicide. (Say it ain't so, Frank!) How could you not want to pick up this comic? Dave Johnson does a fantastic job with the design, too, with the gun leading the eye past the photo and down the cover to the book's logo. -- Kevin Melrose

"The Strain" #2, by Mike Huddleston (Dark Horse)

Mike Huddleston's macabre cover for this adaptation of the vampire novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan has mood to spare. As dark as the image is, Huddleston uses flashes of red to draw the reader's attention to its more unsettling elements: the blood-covered hands, the serpentine tongue that disappears into the shadows of the figure's lower face and, worst (or is that best?) of all, the rib cages littering the floor of the room. -- Kevin Melrose

For the latest miniseries starring Mike Mignola's 1930s pulp vigilante, Dave Johnson (no relation to our hero) draws inspiration from the movie posters of the era, depicting Lobster Johnson as an almost-alien threat, looming over the mobster with his titular "burning hand" (for those who don't know, he burns his lobster-claw symbol into the foreheads of the criminals he kills). I like most everything about this cover, but particularly Johnson's restrained color choices -- the combination of stark black and white, grainy grays and gold splashes. -- Kevin Melrose